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The large black and white photograph is a behind-the-scenes photo from the 1959 film "The Crimson Kimono". The photo was taken in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood, looking northeast up Weller Street from the corner of Second Street and San Pedro. The large building in the distance is Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928. The concrete in the building was made with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from its 21 historic missions. City Hall's tower was inspired by the shape of the Mausoleum of Mausolus (also known as the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Wikipedia

This photo was featured on the cover and on the title page of the 2005 book "L.A. Noir: The City as Character" Amazon Link

"The Crimson Kimono" follows two detectives, one caucasian and one Japanese, as they hunt for the killer of a stripper named Sugar Torch in the Japanese neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The detectives' search is complicated when they both fall in love with a key witness. A more detailed summary

The man in the white shirt with sunglasses is director Samuel Fuller. The man in the plaid shirt may be Sam Leavitt, the film's cinematographer. The camera operator is unknown. The arm in the bottom right corner belongs to an unidentified man. It's unclear whether the white arrow is pointing at the man's arm, or the white line painted on the street.

Based on the framing of the shot, they may have been filming the scene below:

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Leitmotiv

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."—L. Carroll

This quote is drawn from Through The Looking Glass by Louis Carroll.

"The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day."

"It MUST come sometimes to 'jam to-day,'" Alice objected.

"No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every OTHER day: to-day isn't any OTHER day, you know."

"I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing!"

"That's the effect of living backwards," the Queen said kindly: "it always makes one a little giddy at first—"

"Living backwards!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I never heard of such a thing!"

"—but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways."

"I'm sure MINE only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen."

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked.

This quote was a favorite of Carl Jung when explaining the concept of synchronicity, which holds that events are "meaningful coincidences" if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related. Wikipedia